tempus fugit

NY Times Opinion Piece: “Federal funding for water and sewer systems has fallen by 74 percent in real dollars since its peak in 1977”: This is social Darwinism at its most extreme.

2018-10-29

Another quote from the NY Times Opinion Piece: “Detroit and New Orleans stood out in our survey. A typical water bill in those cities exceeds $1,000 a year, putting this critical service beyond the budgets of low-income households.”

As a result of declining federal funding, local governments have been forced to step in and try to provide water and sewer systems– for a charge, maybe a sales tax, who knows?

Poor people have been squeezed in the middle by increasing local charges for access to water, and many have had their water service cut off for unpaid bills. This is perhaps social Darwinism at its most extreme.

We appeal for a social system in which everyone has access to life-giving resources like water and health care, in particular a free education at least to high-school level and possibly higher if students show aptitude. We reject the Betsy de Vos approach to primary education, i.e. online classes with no supervision other than the mother.

Another issue has been presented in the wrong way to make it sound bad: immigration. Without immigration, the United States would suffer a net loss of population each year because not enough American mothers are having enough children. We can argue about how many should be let in (the Trump administration, through adroit administrative delays, has let in only 20,000 this past year) but if we don’t have immigrants, our country would shrink.

Besides, the young immigrants are a life-saver for Social Security and Medicare– new members who are young and will contribute to our old age funds for many years to come. Those who have the physical strength to walk all the way from Honduras will be particularly motivated to get their start at jobs citizens wouldn’t take. To characterize the caravan of mothers, children, and fathers as an “invasion” is a deliberate lie to stir up Trump’s anti-immigrant base; this movement has more of the character of a pilgrimage.